No, Seriously, Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

The worst thing that can ever happen to you, according to my wife, is bedbugs. For those of you who don't pay attention to the news, bedbugs, those nasty little bloodsuckers, have made a comeback. You can read about their resurgence here.

My wife and I found this out the hard way. When we moved to Dallas a few months ago, we weren't sure where we wanted to live, so we checked into an extended-stay hotel, the Suites of America, in Addison while we looked around. Big mistake. (Bedbugs attach themselves to travelers.) One morning I woke up with a couple red marks on my feet. Then my wife started getting similar bites, as did our son. I looked in the mirror one morning and counted 23 bites--on my neck, my arms, my legs, my chest, my back, etc. We weren't the only ones with this problem. In the parking lot a few nights later I saw a neighbor tear his shirt off in a near panic to scratch his back and belly, which were covered with little red welts. His room was infested with bedbugs, he explained, and ours probably was too.

When I relayed this to my wife, she absolutely freaked out. The next morning everything we owned that could possibly house a bedbug colony was stacked in a pile for me to haul out to the dumpster. That afternoon she called me at work to tell me she had found a new apartment. We moved the next morning.

A few months have passed, but my wife is still haunted by the thought of bedbugs, worried we carried their eggs with us. I don't really get her paranoia, but she swears bedbugs are the worst thing that's ever happened to her. And she's still pissed that the hotel didn't compensate us for any of the stuff we had to throw out (which included our son's crib, as well as some bedding and clothes). I guess we should have sued. A Chicago woman is suing an upstate New York hotel for $20 million after waking up one morning with more than 500 bedbug bites. Check out the link: The video showing her back is enough to give anyone the heebie-jeebies. --Jesse Hyde